Hey all,
My DIY Yugang reactor seems to produce an inconsistent pH drop despite operating in "overflow" mode. Some days my drop checker is very green, and then there is a streak of days where it is quite yellow. I'd like to get this ironed out before I buy any fish so I don't gas them.
So far, I've explored the following causes for inconsistent day-to-day drops but none have consisently reproduced the issue.
1. Water Level & Surface Agitation --> Water level relative to filter outlet causes more or less surface agitation, and therefore different pH drops
2. Skimmer Operation --> whether or not filter inlet skimmer is operating properly that day
3. Bubble counter --> whether or not the bubble counter has run dry
4. Injection rate --> even in overflow mode, it can be tuned to purge more or less frequently depending on bubbles per second. In theory, this shouldn't change anything but seems to have at least some impact. I've done my best to completely purge the reactor of any air that gets trapped from water changes/filter cleaning so that it's pure CO2.
Anything I'm missing here that I should look at for potential causes?
After doing some more detailed math using CAD, my reactor is a little over-sized for this tank (approximately 1:20 reactor to tank surface area ratio). The reactor is 2" x 8" Clear Schedule 40 PVC pipe. While this explains why I sometimes get too large of a drop, it still doesn't explain why it's a bit inconsistent day to day.
@Naturescapes_Rocco @Yugang Would you all have any feedback on this?
My DIY Yugang reactor seems to produce an inconsistent pH drop despite operating in "overflow" mode. Some days my drop checker is very green, and then there is a streak of days where it is quite yellow. I'd like to get this ironed out before I buy any fish so I don't gas them.
So far, I've explored the following causes for inconsistent day-to-day drops but none have consisently reproduced the issue.
1. Water Level & Surface Agitation --> Water level relative to filter outlet causes more or less surface agitation, and therefore different pH drops
2. Skimmer Operation --> whether or not filter inlet skimmer is operating properly that day
3. Bubble counter --> whether or not the bubble counter has run dry
4. Injection rate --> even in overflow mode, it can be tuned to purge more or less frequently depending on bubbles per second. In theory, this shouldn't change anything but seems to have at least some impact. I've done my best to completely purge the reactor of any air that gets trapped from water changes/filter cleaning so that it's pure CO2.
Anything I'm missing here that I should look at for potential causes?
After doing some more detailed math using CAD, my reactor is a little over-sized for this tank (approximately 1:20 reactor to tank surface area ratio). The reactor is 2" x 8" Clear Schedule 40 PVC pipe. While this explains why I sometimes get too large of a drop, it still doesn't explain why it's a bit inconsistent day to day.
@Naturescapes_Rocco @Yugang Would you all have any feedback on this?
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